Round pegs
by Clumsy Reaper
Summary: A band of misfits simply trying to survive in the hostile Minecraft world. It's not easy being a round peg in a world full of square holes.
1. So it begins

Roofed forest biomes were dense and dark, he had always hated that about them, but now he was beyond thankful that it was so: it made it impossible for his pursuers to hit him with bows. As he silently and quickly weaved through the many trees, he could hear them attempting to bumble their way through the dense forest in heavy armor, at least letting him know where not to go. Then their movement ceased and was replaced with shouting, still nearer than he wanted but far enough away to know he was safe.

"He's too far into the wood to ever find him on foot," said a burly voice with an air of disapointment, "little scum got away"

"Don't be a fool," chuckled another voice, "There's one way to flush everything out of a forest."

The group went silent for a while and the runner stood, frozen with fear and curiosity. Suddenly he heard movement and dove out of sight into a small hole. But the things making the noise weren't humans, istead there hurried by him several rabbits and wolves. He crawled out of the hole and was passed by several more animals, slowler than the others, who were hurrying the same direction. He heard the sound of monsters the way the animals had come from and pulled his aged stone sword. But when he turned he saw nearly a hundred zombies, skeletons, and even creepers running towards him. He froze in shock at his oncoming doom but as he braced himself to die, he noticed that not a single one of the monsters was paying him any heed, sinply running. He looked confusedly again in the direction they'd come from and saw what they were running from. The trees a good hundred yards away had been replaced by a sea of fire that pushed forward like a wall coming to crush him. Then he did what all the creatures of the forest had done; he ran.

The animals and monsters had gotten too far ahead for him to see where they had gone, but he didn't think it mattered so long as he escaped the deadly blazing wall. So he ran blindly with as much speed as he could away from the ever quickening inferno, he could see an opening ahead and put in as much speed as he could straight to safe-GAH! As soon as he reached the clearing, he found the reason why there was one at all as a huge ravine opened at his feet, to massive to jump across. The walls were to sheer to climb up the far side, or even safely get down the near side. He had nothing to build a bridge with.

As the crackling of the flames grew louder, he searched to either side for a way around, on his left was a no go the chasm spread almost as far as he could see and the fire that side seemed to be finding fuel faster and spreading further than the rest. He looked right and immediatly regetted it. There, staring slightly at the ravine was an enderman. He could tell it felt his glance but he still immediatly sheilded his eyes, opened it wouldn't have noticed him. His hope failed as he heard the tall being warp and he felt its presence within a few feet of him. He stood there for a few seconds, waiting for the pain that never came as the flames grew louder.

After a painfully long moment, he peeked out and noticed the enderman looking at the flames with its head tilted. It sensed him look at it turned its head without turning its body. Now that he could see its face, he noticed a large scar running down the left side of it, going over the left eye which seemed rather pale. They stood there looking at one another for a instant, and he realised the enderman had no mailce for him and lowered his arms from his head. It was then that the enderman slowly extended a hand towards him and gave a look that filled him with an odd amount of trust. He somewhat hesitantly reached out and grabbed the being's hand, it nodded slightly and then suddenly they were both gone.

As they went, he felt the world move and shift around him, yet he himself felt like he was staying still. The feeling was rather nauseating. He shut his eyes tight and didn't open them, even when the feeling stopped. His breathing was ragged and he didn't want to open his eyes to suddenly see they were still going. The enderman poked his arm slightly after a moment, and he heard it walk to another location. He exhaled slightly and opened his eyes to see where he had been taken.

He saw a round cave, a den as he had heard some people call them, fully lit with torches and having only one visible way out of it; a tunnel that seemed perfectally cut to fit the shape of the cave's wall. Off to one side was a crafting table, two furnaces, and a double chest which the enderman he had met before was currently rumaging through. On the other side was a brewing stand and an anvil, neither of which seemed to have been used in a while. In the center of the cave was a small fire, which he could tell was burning on netherack by the gaps that appeared between the flames now and again.

There were several figures sitting around the fire, he was about to move towards them to investigate, but the enderman stopped him. He looked at the being who had saved him from fire and again the enderman stared back, not a drop of hostility in its eyes. It again reached a hand towards him but this time it held out something in it. It was a potion of an odd color that bubbled strangely within the bottle. He made a face when he looked at it, he had never been fond of potions for some reason. The enderman tilted its head and held it a little closer to him. He looked into those eyes once more and gave in, taking the bottle and pulling the cork. It smelled oddly sweet so he figured it couldn't be all bad, probably just a potion of regen or something. He lifted the container to his lips and took a swig. It tasted like something he'd never had before but it was a rather pleasant taste. Then he became suddenly aware how dry his throat had become from the smoke of the fire and the sickening effect of the teleportation and quickly downed the rest of the bottle.

It went down rather smooth and quenched his thrist nicely, but once the concoction reached his stomach it started to burble unpleasantly inside him and his head swam a little. He could tell it wasn't poison but it definatly wasn't being kind to him, like some sort of booze. He sat down, feeling tired. The little dark in the cave seemed to grow and grow. The last thing he saw before it all went dark was the enderman's eyes looking at him with a air of slight concern. As the faded he heard a strange male voice.

"It seems a little worse than I thought it'd be, forgive me for that." It said, though he had no idea where it came from as at that moment, he knew no more for some time.

«^»

There were two sounds that he first noticed when he started coming back; somewhat near at hand was a strange rythmic beeping and slightly further away was the sound of voices.

"He was in danger," said the voice he had heard earlier, it was not deep but it was resonant, and it sounded calm, stoic even.

"So that qualifies him being here?" Asked another voice, raspy sounding with a peculiar accent, "he could kill us! Who knows how many weapons he has on him!"

"He won't do that, I saw how he acts..." responded the first voice, "he is...different."

"Then I suppose he sorta fits in," interjected a third voice, male again deeper than the others but somehow far from menacing.

He shifted a bit, sensation coming back to his body; it didn't ache but it was sluggish. there was a shifting noise and the close by beeping stopped.

"Hey guys," called yet another male voice that sounded rather young, maybe in their twenties, "I think he's coming to. Hey, easy now guy, you've been out for a few hours, you won't be working quite right for a bit."

He slowly pushed himself up into a sitting position. His head swam a little and his eyes ached, so he put a hand over them and kept them closed. He heard the first voice once again.

"Are you alright?" they asked, rather concerned, "Can you hear me?"

He nodded weaily and was about to attempt to get up and stretch when he heard hissing behind him. He leapt up onto slightly unstable feet as he whipped around and sheilded himself with his arms. He waited a moment and was no explosion. He moved his arms slightly he peeked out. Before him stood a creeper with strange reds splotches over its body. It wasn't ignited. When it saw him looking at it it grinned, a thing he had really seen creepers do, and then it did a thing he had never even heard of a creeper doing: it laughed. It wasn't a jolly hissing, it was an actual mischeivous somewhat punctiuated laugh that would instantly be associated with a typical prankster. He lowered his arms fully and stared, confused. After a moment the creeper got its laughter under control and looked at him.

"Oh, you should have seen your face!" Came a voice that moved in unison with the creeper's mouth and matched the laughing, "priceless."

It took him a moment to realise what had just happened, his brain was still waking up and he was slightly in shock, but before to long his synapsis fired and he suddenly understood.

"Wait a minute..." he stammered, "d-did you just talk?"

"I suppose I never got a chance to explain..." the stoic voice said behind him. He turned around and saw the enderman who had saved him looking at him slightly. It seemed like the voice had come from it

"Being fair, you never really got a chance," said the young voice. He turned and saw a zombie with a white shirt sitting on a log not far from him, it too seemed to be the location of that voice

"Wh-wh-what is going on?" he said, becoming frightened now.

"Settle down now," said the voice that seemed to come from the enderman, "just calm down, look at me, and I'll explain."

He nodded slowly and sat back down, shaking slightly. The enderman walked over to him and sat down as well, looking at him.

"That drink I gave you is ancient recipe, made from things you simply can't find anymore," said the calm voice, which had come with the enderman, "we call it the Potion of Utterence. It allows humans to hear the language of mobs."

"The...the language of mobs?" he asked, confused, but calmed by both the voice and the look in the enderman's eyes, "that's ridiculous. Mobs don't talk."

"Then what are we doin right now?" came the deep voice from before from a little ways away, he looked and saw that it came from a skeleton who wore a strange hooded cape, with the hood currently down.

"Okay...okay so you gave me a weird potion and I can understand you now..." he said slowly, "but...why?"

They all looked at eachother slightly. After a moment the raspy voice, it belonged to a spider with peculiar dark green strips on its back, answered the question.

"We brought something known for killing hundreds of each of our kind into our home," the spider said with air of distatse, "we wanted it to at least understand before it attmempted to kill us."

"But I..." he began but the spider cut him off.

"Save it, all you humans are the same," it hissed at him, "the world has to be the way you want it, and you don't want us in it, which means you kills us even when we do nothing against you!"

Something in those words made him upset, and he pulled out his sword, the beings nearer to him jumped and moved back a bit, excluding the enderman who watched with interest. Instead of attacking, he gently tossed the stone weapon onto the floor, it was in virtually pristine condition.

"I have had that same sword for longer than I can remember, and I've never even held another," he said, "and it's only ever drawn any sort of blood twiceboth times on a human and both times a non fatal wound."

The mobs in the cave all stared at the sword, after a moment, the skeleton picked it up and look at it.

"Well, it'd definatly as old as he says," they said slowly, "and obvious it hasn't been used much."

The enderman stared at the human, and when their eyes met the tall being nodded.

"He's telling the truth..." It said after a moment, "he has never harmed one creature that the humans consider to be a monster."

The spider looked at the ground a bit as the skeleton gave him back his sword.

"Now then," said the enderman, "I suppose introductions are in order. My name is Nern, the rude arachnid would be Traum."

The enderman, Nern, then passed a slight look around the room, leaving an open offer for anyone who want to continue the introductions. The odd beeping started back up and the human saw the zombie fiddling with a device that said 'gameboy' on the back.

"I'm Frank." the skeleton put in with a slight sigh, "but I'd prefer to go by Brink."

"I sugest you call him what he prefers to be called," chuckled the creeper and he moved closer to the fire in the center of the cave, "name's Shen, by the way."

"Dave." The zombie said, waving slightly with one hand.

"Nice to meet you all," he said after a moment, "I'm Grim"

"Interesting name for a human," Nern commented, "but I digress a bit. Would you mind if I asked you why exactly that forest you were in was on fire?"

"Some guys were chasing me, they wanted me dead and figured the best way to do that was was to burn the place to the ground," Ron answered, "let's just say I took some stuff from them and they weren't happy. But what's bugging me is you guys' story. It's really rare anybody sees all of your respective kinds working together, let along living together in a fully lit cave."

"We are outcasts," Nern answered, looking down, "each exiled from and hunted by our own peoples..."

"Understood," Grim nodded slightly, "we have that in common...nice to be safe for once. Speaking of which, how do you know we're safe here?"

"We lined the outerside of the walls of most of this cave with a double layer obsidian, so it'll take a lot for anything to break its way in," Brink said, "so that one tunnel there is the only way in, and it goes through a cave system knotted up like a maze. Not to mention the traps."

"Traps?" Reapeated Grim, confused.

"Yuppers," Shen said with a grin, "Dave's got skill when it comes to redstone. He rigged up that maze a lot. Everyone helped with parts, but he was the redstone guy for sure."

"And of course there's Q." Brink picked up again, "great big slime that acts as sorta a wall in the tunnel in case anything gets past the caves: guy's half of the size of the bit of tunnel he guards. Slimes may not be very smart, you won't hear any of 'em talk even after drinking that potion, but they're loyal."

"Huh..." Grim nodded, slightly impressed.

"By the way, you are welcome to stay the night here," Nern said after a moment, "I can take you wherever you like in the morning. Or now if you would prefer not to stay."

"Thanks...I'll stay...tired anyway" Grim answered, laying down and quickly drifitng back to sleep. The others in the cave soon followed, with the exception of Nern, who sat staring into the fire for a long time, unblinking. After a long moment he spoke in a quiet voice.

"So it begins..." he said in a barely audible whisper.

* * *

So yeah. That was the first part of an actual Minecraft story that I decided to start.

 **Where's Age of Ruin? You left a cliffhanger.**

I'm working on it, alright? You know how hard it is to work in everything that I want to happen. And I wound up watching a lot of youtube and got somewhat inspired by Slamacow animations.

 **Somewhat?**

Okay, A fair amount. And Dave it pretty much the same as the zombie in those videos (also named Dave). But either way, this will get...interesting soon if I continue with it, so feel free to reveiw and tell me what you think.

 **Seriously, please leave a reveiw. Even if it's just one word, just please reveiw. Belak starts freaking out that nobody likes his stuff if he doesn't get feedback. And it's annoying as heck...**

It's fine, Xirc, they don't have to if they don't want to. I do not freak out. Don't losten to him, he's moronic.

 **Hey!**

Am I wrong?

 **...no...**

That's what I thought. Now then

Belak Out


	2. A quiet glow

Nern blinked after his last statement, confused as to where it had come from, but mostly understanding what it meant. He nodded slightly, then sighed. He looked around at the cave he and his friends had lived in for so long and thought back on how they had gotten there...

«^»

To say that the End was dying was putting it gently. It had long ago become a desert and what little of it, that accursed island built as a nest for that creature, was left was slowly falling apart. And worst of all, for some reason, the endermen did not seem to care. Something in them had somehow vanished, leaving them almost like zombies devoted to protecting that vile dragon. Those born outside the end had more of that missing peice than those born within it, but even they did not seem to quite be as they should. Don't get me wrong, they were all still very much sentient, and though it may not have been clear, they were all very much individuals. It simply seemed like they had been...reprogrammed.

Of course, they had been like this so long that many beings had begun to assume they had always been like this, including the enderman themselves. But one day, through mean unusual even for beings from the end, a single endermen came to be, who lacked that strange reprogramming.

On that day, the End itself seemed to stir as if from slumber: the signature dark purple energy of its inhabitants rising like smoke from the very ground. Something about this infuriated the dragon and it began to lash and churn in the air, lighting the sky above the end with its power. But none of this is important to our story as of current.

However, something important was happening. In a small cave that had formed on the side of the island, a single torch suddenly light the darkness, illuminating the shape of a lone human figure. Their face and body were obscured by a heavy cloak, even their eyes were hidden in the shadows of the hood. In the light of the torch they quickly pulled out three objects; a normal enderman egg, a strange glowing sphere and a small coin like pendant with peculiar inscriptions on it. They held the egg and the sphere close together and they seemed to combine with a peculiar twinkling noise like a harp. Then they the egg down in a soft place at the deepest part of the cave, laying the pendant next to it. The strange figure stood for a moment, a relaxed almost happy seeming stance. Then the dragon roared in its battle with nothing and the figure quickly snuffed the light of the torch, now that the darkness was all around and not just in their hood, it could be seem that the figures eyes glowed a faint white in the darkness. The egg too, seemed to glow, a blackish purly light, barely visible, but still there. The figure nodded and with a slight flash, they were suddenly gone.

The egg sat there, shaking ever so slightly in its own glow, as above the energy and the dragon only began to both settle down, seemingly tired of their peculiar battle. It would yet be a few days, or the end vacimily thereof, before the being in the egg would appear, but something about the cave passively repelled the other beings in the end, keeping the egg safe. And this egg is not one that hatched, per say, instead, after those few days, it seemed to burst in a small shower of sparks.

Where the egg had been now croutched an enderman, young seeming but far from a child, yet clearly not quite fully adult yet either. As it looked around the cave, its faintly glowing eyes were a pure whitish color for a moment, before slowly fading to the normal dark purple. As he searched around, its eyes fell upon the pendant and he slowly picked it up, tracing the strange symbols, tilting its head slightly. After a moment he nodded and stowed it away on as though in some invisible pocket before moving slowly towards the mouth of the cave. Staring at the sky of the end, it suddenly heard noise behind it.

It turned around to see a cloaked figure whose eyes glowed lightly from under their hood. The two locked eyes and stood there for a moment, neither moving. As they stared into one another's eyes the enderman felt as the he were staring into the the universe itself; those white eyes held boundless wisdom, and it felt like a small part of that wisdom was somehow being transferred to the enderman. After they had stood there for a long time, the hooded figure nodded slowly the enderman nodded back in response. The human turned away and said two words before vanishing:

"Good luck."

And like that, the human was gone. The enderman looked down at the ground slightly, then back up as the awful dragon roared over head. It scowled slightly and warped away to another world. It would be several years before he saw the end again.

«^»

Nern leaned back against a wall slightly, sighing. From seemingly nowhere, he took out a small round pendant and slowly traced the symbols one it. He had learned much in the years he had travelled the world. He lifted a hand to his scar and now gently traced that; his forst lesson had been how cruel some of the beings of the world can be. He shook his head, he hated remembering that day. He stretched his long body out on the floor, slowly closing his eye about to finally sleep. That's when he heard the noise. He instantly warped back up to his feet and listened, eyes going wide.

If he listened hard enough he could hear several loud shouting voices. But that wasn't what worried him, what worried him was a louder more constant sound: the immistakable sound of pickaxes, many many pickaxes, striking against obsidian.

* * *

So yeah, chapter two of this.

 **So you're doing that sort of story.**

What?

 **You slowly reveal the backstories as the main story happens?**

Maybe, maybe not. But we will find out the story for the rest of the group, and the rest of Nern's story.

 **Why do you do this?**

Cause I'm having fun. Anywa

belak out


	3. Run

Grim was woken suddenly by a somewhat harsh tap from Nern, before he could even question why he heard the sound that had caused the enderman to do so. The human scrambled to his feet, finding most of the others already awake.

"They're going to mine right into this place..." He said, listening closely.

"Newsflash kid, they ain't mining," Brink snarled, "nobody brings that many on a mining expedition, and most miners give up when they find a massive wall of obsidian in their way. Don't worry though, we can handle them."

With that he readied his bow, four arrows nocked, each looking different than the normal, as though they were made through an entirely different process. Meanwhile, Traum readied himself to lunge hissing menacingly, and even Dave put down his game boy and pulled out a battered iron sword.

Grim looked around nervously, there was something about this he didn't like. The human glanced at Nern who was staring up at the ceiling, just as the enderman seemd to have a slight shock of revelation.

"There's quite a lot up there..." Nern said quietly, then he alone heard a sound none of the others did and his eyes went wide, his next words coming out loudly so everyone could here, "we can't win this fight."

The others looked at him, Nern very rarely raised his voice, and what was more, after he had shouted he warped over to the double chest and instead of opening it, he simply hoisted it and began carrying it under his arm. He looked at them all, as fast as he could while still making eye contact. A revelation that something like none of them had ever seen dawned on them to drive the stoic enderman into such a frenzy, and they all got the same thought: run.

The six beings bolted for the tunnel system, Nern leading the way. As they turned a corner they heard a the sound of picks getting much louder, the attackers were clearly only a few layers away from breaking through. The small group came to a part where a three by three meter gap had been cut into the wall, and inside, fitting perfectally into the space, was a large slime of the same size was sleeping. As they passed by, Brink whistled (somehow).

"Q, block it up!" the skeleton said as they ran past. The green creature woke up and shimmied its way out of its opening and i to the path of the tunnel, taking up nearing the whole space. Grim glanced back over his shoulder, the slime definatly seemed like it would keep their pursuers busy for a while, but they it was clear that they needed something more than that. He looked around and spotted what he wanted.

"Guys, help me move some of this!" He said rushing over to a particular spot in the stone wall, "then added as the others stopped to look at him, "trust me, this will slow them down a lot, but you can't break any of it while you're moving it!"

With that he gently slid a peice of the wall out, holding the whole thing and set it carefully in the path behind them. Most of the others still looked confused but Nern suddenly seemed to understand, as he set down the double chest and started helping to form the blockade, the others, though confused began to hurriedly help out.. Once or twice Grim would tell them not to use a certain peice and dirct them to another, and as soon as the wall was a single block thick from floor to ceiling, he instantly had them stop. They sound of voices was heard not far away along with a strange squishing, the invaders had made it to to the large slime and wouldn't be too long against it. Grim nodded at there wall abit as they began to run, Nern picking up the chest once more.

"So, uh, Grim," Dave asked once the wall was behind them and the tunnel started to upen up into other pathways, "those guys got through several layers of obsidian, probably the whole ceiling of our cave back there, in a matter of minutes. Why will that small wall of stone slow them down at all?"

"It's clearly been a while since you guys dug anything in these caves," Grim smirked just a little as he gave his answer. And though he gave no more explanation, they heard a voice yell behind them occumpanied by a large amount of strange insect like hissing. Nern nodded in aproval as he took a sudden turn.

"Ever a swarm won't hold them back for long..." the enderman said, running expertly through the series of tunnels, "even with hitting the traps soon, we'll need to pull out all the stops."

"Do you mean what I think you're getting at?" Brink said, sounding excited.

Nern nodded as he responded, "the chasm."

"Chasm?" Grim asked, beging to struggle to keep up

"You'll find out," Nern said.

They took another corner and were suddenly in a hallway, perfectally straight and uniform, the oddest thing about it was the the floor, walls and ceiling were all made of gravel. At the sight, Grim slowly just slightly, reaching out towards the wall.

"Don't touch it!" Dave said, grabbing and dragging the human by the collar, "not yet."

They rached a point where the gravel of the sides of the cave was replaced by stone once again, not far away the tunnel began to climb slightly. Nern stooped and the others followed his lead. A light came around the corner at the other side of the passage, illuminating a single figure, all it was impossible to tell any actual details about them from the distance and with the current lighting. Still, when he saw them, Nern's eyes went wide as if with terror.

"Brink, drop it!" The enderman yelled, motioning for the others to run again. Brink only lagged behind for a moment as he fired a single arrow into the ceiling of the tunnel midway across, and the whole thing came dropping down: the ceiling, the walls, the floor, somehwo it had all been floating gravel, waiting to be updated. And when it fell, it was revealed for a second that it had been the only bridge across a chasm that was more a massive underground hole than any sort of ravine. But there was only a veiw of it for a second, for as soon as the gravel gave way, a river of lava poured down from the top of the cave, completely obscuring the path. Brink nodded at the result before running after the others, Nern seemed calmer now, as though he felt like they had gotten away safetly this time. He started talking to the rest of the group as he slowed.

"The other traps definatly slowed down his troops, but the chasm's the only thing that will actually hinder him much...though how much I don't know," Nern said, "either way, we need to go...far..."

"Been a while since we've moved," Traum sighed, "I suppose we are due for it..."

"Our defenses were fantastic this time, though..." Brink put in, "and we even did that last minute thing with the silverfish! How the hell did that guy get past all that!?"

"Things are starting, friends," Nern said very slowly, "I can't explain right now, not enough time...but I will explain...you all just have to trust me..."

Without even an instant of hesitation, the others responded postively.

"Of course we trust you," Brink said, "we might all have different reasons for it, but we do trust you. No matter what."

"Even I do," Grim said.

Nern looked over his shoulder and made eye contact with the human, who suddenly felt like those words meant even more than he thought.

"Good, good." Nern said, turning back to what was ahead of him, half opening the chest under his arms as the delved deeper and deeper into the maze of caves, "we'll need to go through the Nether to get far enough fast enough: my warps aren't big enough to carry all of us to safety... And even if they were, we'd still be too easy to track...and besides, I've been scotuing out another safe place for a while, the other portal should already be there."

he began to pull obsidian blocks out of the chest, he stopped and began to place them down. Before long, he had made the nether portal and started ushering the others through. After that it was a short time before Nern did indeed lead them to another Nether portal, already built. On the other side was another cave, this one high in the side of a mountain with slopes too steep to safely climb, the opening overlooking the sea. Nern set down the chest and sat down ontop of it, staring out at the water as the others began to settle in for needed rest. Before he went to bed, Grim decided to ask Shen, the only one besides Nern who was still awake, a few thing.

"Hey Shen?" The human inquired of the creeper.

"Let me guess," Shen suddenly interupted, "you want to know our groups' story?"

The human nodded a bit.

"Well, I couldn't tell much," the Creeper sighed, "I'm the newest here, besides you, and the others don't like to talk about their past, except that at one point or another, Nern found them and recruited them into the squad...but if you want, I can tell you my story..."

Grim looked at the creeper, who, though he had just a few hours earlier seemed so mischevious and happy, now seemed sad and dejected.

"I'd like that," the human said after a long moment, "and to make you feel better, I'll tell you some about me after."

"Alright..." the green being responded, looking slightly less nervous, "it started a couple years ago..."

* * *

Chapter three. Might stop doing author's notes for these...doesn't feel right for some reason...

Either way, that is all.

Belak Out


	4. The blood creeper

They are always there, even when you cannot see them. They will always know where you are, and they will find a way to get to you. So go ahead, turn your back for just a moment, you will hear that dreaded hissing behind you. And then you will die. It's nothing personal, it's just what they do, what they must do: it is their way, the are the death that walks on legs.

However...one day something...strange happened...but we will get to that

Many beings think that creepers do not have any form of social groups, and they would be somewhat incorrect. Creepers do not seem to have much culture only because they are efficient, cold, and calculating beings. Their semi-nomadic society is based entirely around efficiency, not just in the art of killing but in everything. Creepers gain no names, rarely speak, and forgo many of the others aspects of normal civilization as, to them, they are all a waste of time the green beings could be doing things they deem much more important. However they are not wholly driven by instinct. They are far too clever for that to be said. They are simply very focused on their goals.

There is one regard, however, in which Creepers soften just barely: parenting. Though that small amount does not count for much. Still, creeper children are so protected it is rare any other being will see them until they are grown. These young creepers are usually practically born with the efficient mentality of the adults. There are a few exceptions, of course, but creepers are not cruel to their own and at least protect these exceptions until they can take care of themselves. Which is the situation we find one particular young creeper, born with several abnormal red spot marks all over him.

From the start he seemed too curious to the others, always trying to figure out what exactly made his brethren explode, how to make it stronger, and if there was a way for them to survive it. The other creepers tolerated this, barely. But none the less he grew and aged until he was old enough to leave, and though he would have had no choice in the matter, he did so willing, eager to explore the world.

But the world is a dangerous place, full of all dangerous sorts. There are some who would wish the mobs of this world extinct. But the creeper did not run into those, but the group he did run into, certain folk would consider much, much worse.

As he wandered through the world, it was not long before he came across a small human camp. Curiosity overcame cautiousness and he slowly made his way nearer and nearer the firelight. Oddly, when he reached the small ring of light he didn't see anyone or anything for a moment. Then out of the shadows leapt a man, he had on a sort of black trench coat outfit and a bandanna covering his lower face, holding an iron sword and rushed the creeper. The green being, overcome by instinct in his moment of terror, shut his eyes tightly and began to hiss.

The battle yelling of the man he had seen stopped and was replaced with him beckoning to others that must of still been hiding. The creeper could tell by their footsteps that they came out and got near him. He stiffened out of worry and confusion. Why was nothing happening? He kept hissing until he had run out of breath, then he gasped slightly for air as suspense or not he decided to open his eyes. He saw three more figures had joined the one with the sword in front of him. One spindly one seemed to have their entire left side comprised of metal and machinery while the right side was organic, another was short and wore a sort of apron and a welding mask, while the final one was dressed up in a tuxedo, monocle, and top hat. The one with the welding mask began to circle around the creeper and look him over.

"How odd," they said after a long moment, "this little guy didn't simply not detonate, I don't believe he can...check him over, would ya?" He said the last part specifically the the half metal one who nodded and looked at the creeper for a moment.

"You're right..." He said when a slight beep sounded, "scan says he lacks the activator along with the detonator. A bomb with no fuse, so to speak."

"Make for a rather devious little prank," nodded the fancy looking on, "though not much else."

"Little prank?" Said the one with the welding mask, "this guy would scare the shit out of anything he snuck up on and no one would be the wiser! Plus those red spots seem an awful lot like blood."

"That's true. Makes it look like he's killed once or twice. And I've always known creepers to be intelligent," the welding mask one piped in, "with a bit of teaching and work we could probably set up a whole routine around this guy. "

"I'm up for it. Getting sick of being beat up," said the one with a bandanna, "people would run from a hissing creeper instead of turning to fight like they do with me."

"Especially if we made the creeper seem like it could explode as many times as it liked and survive," added in the mechanical one.

"So it's decided then, I suppose," said the one in the tux, "we'll take him with us. But he'll need a name..."

The creeper was about to ask who they were first but decided against it as he remembered humans couldn't understand his kind. He just sighed slightly, the sound coming out as slight hissing as it looked down. The one with the bandanna came over to him, tugging the cloth off his face and revealing a friendly, if mischievous grin with a tooth missing here and there. His face was was marked not just with scars but with heavy wrinkle lines from smiling, as though he rarely stopped doing so. His hair was a dark red rebellious mop that seemed to be trying to overtake his face with the scraggly beginnings of a beard.

"Don't worry, little guy, we won't hurt you, not if you don't hurt us," he smiled a little more, he seemed to mean what he had said and the creeper nodded slightly then the man put his bandanna back on, "I vote we call him Shen."

"Shen, hm?" Said then one in the suit, "I suppose it sounds alright, all things considered. Shall what does he think of it?"

"Why bother?" said the one with the welding mask, "he's just a dumb animal."

"Hush your mouth before you agitate him, fool," snapped the suited man, "many of the creatures that roam the world are beyond sentient, they simply speak a language which humans cannot normally decipher. Now then, little friend, would you enjoy the name Shen? Keep in mind, though, if you accept the name, you join up with us."

The creeper tilted his head in consideration for a moment, then nodded happily. He was excited that he had made friends so soon, and they seemed rather intelligent.

"Well then, that's settled. I suppose we should reveal our names now that you'll be traveling with us," nodded the man in the suit, "the fellow you met first would be Dak, our cyborg companion goes by Cryo, the moronic masked fellow is named Bar, and I am known as The Gentleman though I am sometimes referred to as simply Gent for sake of time."

"We could have said our own names," Bar mumbled under his breath. Dak elbowed him hard in the gut. Gent shook his head and got close to the creeper.

"We may be a tad disorganized as of current, but With your help, our new friend," he said slowly, grinning, "we will become the greatest griefers in the world."

The creeper did not know what the word 'griefer' meant, but something about it stirred a feeling within him and his mouth formed itself into a smiled that was filled to the brim with mischief..

In an amount of the time that followed, the creeper learned a lot about the small group of greifers as they prepared for his 'debut' as they called it: he would watch from the safety of the shadows as they went on their mischevious missions. From these observations, It was made clear that Dak, despite his average build, was the correct choice for the group's cheif fighter; when that bandana got pulled up over his broken smile, it was as though he felt no pain and gained so much strength it made his banged up iron sword into a chainsaw, so much so that The other members had taken to calling the bandana the 'Juggernaut Mask'. As such, he never wore armor and refused to enchant his sword. But when the bandana came down that smile would always light his thin face.

On the other side of things was Bar, was a wretched fighter, but the small man made himself immeasurably useful in other ways. Bar was who you went to see when you wanted something to go boom; he was a expert when it came to explosives, knowing exactly how to place TNT to destroy and entire chunk with just ten peices. But his genius was not at it's height with TNT alone, the man was always experimenting with new explosive forces, successfully creating hundreds of bombs and denotating objects for the troupe. Though one does not make a bomb without a few things blowing up in your face, he could be heard saying many times: he had experienced so many failed experiments that he was physically incapable of removing his welder's mask...probably for the better. But even without seeing his face, anyone could tell you his temper was more explosive than his bombs.

The one with the coolest temper was definatly Cryo. To say that the half metal man was cold enough to fit his name was an understatment. But his chilly attitude seemed to help him be more precise: He studied each target and within minutes he was able to tell you exactly would they would do under the vast majority of situations. And he was intelegent in more ways than that; he kept a neatly organized shelf filled with disks containing data and info on any and everything imaginable. And Just as Bar made new explosives, Cryo was often seen inventing an entirely new tool for the group, from grappling hooks that could pull peices out of walls to a remote that could trigger redstone devices from a distance without even being connected to them. Of course his signature invention was what earned him his nickname: he had a small device built into his robotic arm that encased anything he hit with it in a large block of solid ice.

And then, of course, their was the ever peculiar Gentleman. The fancy looking man certainly lived up to his name, always peculiarly polite; even while using his oddly thin, rapier like diamond sword in combat he was always complimenting his opponent or giving them advance on form and stance. But despite being as cordial as he was, anyone who thought for a second that Gent was not dangerous was quickly proven wrong. There was many reasons he was in charge of the group: his combat skills were unmatched, even with the Juggernaut Mask on, even Dak would fall to Gent's skill in a matter of moments, none of them had ever seen the monocle wearing man beaten in a swordfight. Likewise the fancy human's intellect was beyond incredible, constantly outwitting even Cryo's vast stores of knowledge. The man was beyond well taught in the ways of both scholarship and combat, though from where none of them knew. But the main reason he was leader was that his mind was not just powerful, it was devilishly devious.

And it was his idea that became the major project for the group for a while after taking in Shen. While they could not understand his language, Gent had the idea to create a new tounge based around noises that both the humans and the creeper could produce and understand. Not only would this new language allow them to communicate both ways with Shen, but it would make so that their enemies and targets would not understand what they were saying. This plan would take a huge amount of time to develop and perfect, but they all agreed that like Gent's ideas, it was genius. Between their missions, they were constantly working on the new language for the next few months.

«^»«^»«^»

From the branches of a tree in the forest surrounding a nice looking, moderatly sized house came a peculiar series of clicks, hisses and other odd noises. Five more series of sounds answered from different locations. To untrained ear it simply sounded like animals in the woods, but to the beings who made the sounds, it was five signals that five entities were ready to enaxt a plan: to them the sounds formed words and sentences.

"Place is mostly empty," one of the beings said in the strange language, it was Cryo, now speaking quietly through a comm device he had invented, "just an unarmed guy gardening out the back, and two guards in the house itself, they're both pretty quipped up. Only way into the celler is through the house."

"And busting open a new way would get too much unwanted attention," Bar pointed out.

"Should we set up a distraction?" inquired Dak using the same tounge, "old guy seems like he'd be jumpy, light at night as it is."

"Get him to call out the guards, then take them down," Gent answered, "Shen you up for it?"

"Always am, my friend," called a fifth voice in the language: Shen.

"Good," The Gentleman answered, "well, time to get to work, fellows."

Three shadows moved through the trees to a position near the front doors of the house, while two more slowly crept behind the high stone wall lining the house's garden, just outside of the ring of light made by the torches. When the gate opened as if blown by the wind, the man, not quite old yet but far from young, of course went over to close it, out leapt Shen, hissing loudly as he gave a sharp twitch of his head to one side. The man scrambled back as there was a flash and an explosion engulfed the creeper, blowing the fence apart. But the dust settled and Shen still stood there, glowering at the man who screamed in terror.

It was seconds before the guards came bursting out the back door and rushed towards Shen, but Dak leapt out from behind the green being, flashing Shen a smile as he pulled the bandana over his mouth and nose, and like that a raging fire seemed to engulf his eyes. The nearer guard swung his diamond sword in a swipe that would have taken out Dak's neck, but the warrior raised one hand so fast it blurred and blocked the blade with his unguarded palm. As a single drop of blood rolled down his wrist, Dak raised his sword and bashed the guard in the nose with the hilt of his iron sword, and the armored man crumpled unconscious. Dak cracked his neck gently as an arrow sunk into the back of his sword arm, but the warrior did not drop his weapon, only tightened his grip on it as in one fluid motion he spun around, yanked the arrow out with his cut off hand, and threw it back at the second guard who had fired it. It flew with such force it peirced right through the man's diamond armor and sunk deep into his hip, causing him to crumple to the ground and quickly pass out in pain. Dak removed his bandana, the mischevious smile returning as he went to examine the wound he had created. After a moment he nodded and turned towards the aged man.

"We don't kill people if we can avoid it, so don't worry about these two, they're fine. But we only do that" he said in normal human tounge, gesturing to the two gaurds with the second part, "to those who get in out way. Understand?"

The man nodded and sat down, back against a wall with his hand over his eye. Dak nodded a bit and switched back to the clicking and hissing of the peculiar language they had spoken in before.

"How'd I do, Shen?" he asked, smiling

"Great as always," the creeper responded. Then they heard Gent speak through their coms.

"We've done what came to do, excelent job you two," the sophisticated voice spoke out, "meet up at the randevous point."

"On our way," Dak chuckled a little. He nodded at the creeper and they both fadded off into the trees. When the owner of the house came back, for they were away the old man was simply a friend and gardener, they would find countless amounts of various hard to find treasures gone, their celler dishevelled by explosions, and their house filling up with chickens originating from a series of dispensers filled with eggs hooked up to a redstone pulse circuit.

This mission had marked their five hundreth success in a row, over a span of three years. By this point they had become quite infamous for many reasons: for one because they never used the same plan twice making them unpredicatble, another reason was because of each member's extreme skill in their feild. And of course their biggest factor was Shen, who had become know in some circles as the Blood Creeper, feared far and wide as being a creeper to survive their own explosions, and explode infinitely.

Of course, Shen didn't _really_ explode. Those in the group know as well as you do that he couldn't. But they had worked long and hard to develop a form of bomb that would be placed and camoflauged on Shen's person; it exploded like a normal creeper when activated except that the blast was regulated not to damage Shen himself. It was activated by the creeper moving his head in certain ways, like a subtle twitch to one side, like he had just demonstrated.

He had been a real help to the group: both as a scare factor and because his creeper instincts allowed his first thoughts on plans and tacticts to be things the humans in the group wouldn't think of for hours normally. In return and to keep him safe, They each taught him several things about their respective arts; combat, science, etc.. But what Shen most took a shining to was learning explosives, he could very often be seen learning the destructive artform from either Gent, Bar or both. He quickly mastered the skill and with his creeper instincts he was on the verge of becoming better than Bar.

Life was good for the griefers, or at least the ones in their group. And when they returned to their base, they would have a celebration, five hundred was an impressive number of consecutive successes for people like them, after all. They all met up at the roundevous location, an old, gnarled birch tree they'd found, after which Gent nodded happily at what they'd collected and the report of the battle. Then they bandaged up Dak's new wounds, and headed out, each already eager for the next raid.

But then things went bad. As they strolled through a small ruined village, torches suddenly lit at various places in a circle around them. The group stopped, confused but readying themselves for a fight. They placed their backs against a wall just as several figures clad head to toe in strangely shaped armor came into the circle of light, surrounding them. One stood slightly more forward than the rest.

"Time to pay for the terror you have caused, scum" they said, brandishing a massive sword.

The group of griefers practically began laughing. Bounty hunters were always after them, but even massive groups like this were barely a hinderance with how skilled each member was. Dak raised his bandana over his face, his eyes lighting up with that strange fury as he charged the warriors' ranks on one side, while Cryo and Bar focused their ranged weaponry on the other. Gent calmly stolled towards the apparent leader, his rapier drawn.

"En Guarde, good sir," the curdious man with a slight bow, "now I must premptively apoligse for what I am about to do to you."

"Do not say you've won before your opponent lays dead, fool," said the man, effortlessly making a show swing of his sword, "and I shall not be dying anytime soon."

Shen was glad he was not expected to rush into fights due to his lack of means of attack. He was going to enjoy what he was about to see. He knew the other fights would be interesting, but there was always something fantastic about watching Gent fight, especially when he seemed outmatched like this. Shen smiled as the monocled man effortlessly parried a swing from the large soldier.

"Your weapon may be powerful," Gent said, jabbing at a chink in the other man's armor, "but when it comes to combat, stance, and speed are also important factors. And your stance is rather poor, even for one wearing armor. You shout turn slightly to the side to minimalise the amouns the amount of strikable space."

In response the large man made a jab at the Gentleman, who merely stepped slightly to one sude and struck another gap in the armor in the seconds it took for his opponent to pull the sword back.

"Further more, you should really attempt to be less predictable," the astristocrat stated, using the tip of his rapier to redirect an attack so it missed him entirely, "you only seem to know a few manuevers and are not cycling very well between them. Though perhaps you ar simply uneducated. Tell you what, we can put this whole thing behind us and I will teach you the art of swordsmanship. What do you say?"

"STOP TALKING!" the large man said, gripping his sword with both hands and driving it down, in an attempt to slice straight down through Gent. But the curtious cavalier preformed the most excellent parry and the sword drove deep into the ground two or so feet from him, the extra downward momentum causing the large man to fall off balance. He fell onto his own sword slightly, not enouh to hurt him, but enough to damange his armor badly.

"Well, my man, it would seem I have triumphed," Gent said calmly, lowering but not sheathing his blade, "now call off your other men before they get hurt and be on your way. Unless you are thinking of taking up my offer to teach you, of course."

The large man growled as he got back up partially, to his knees panting. Gent looked at him curiously for a moment and eld out his hand to help his opponent up. The armored man took it and began to stand up. He looked into the older man's eyes, a grin suddenly coming to his face.

"Thank you for not killing me," the bounty hunter breather as he reached his feet. Then suddenly he add in a snarl "It will be the worst mistake you ever make!"

With a small knife in his hand he lunged forward towards Gent. When the man was almost within slashing range Gent made a slow, deliberate thrust. The tip of his rapier sank into a crack that had formed in the man's iron chestplate, and through the double momentum it kept going and before long found the man's heart. He stopped his charge, eyes going glazed as Gent lowered the blade and the man's body slipped off of it.

"And that, good sir, is _la fin_ ," the Gentleman said sadly, "good day..."

That was one thing that set them apart from most griefers: each member of the group despised killing. Mischeif in all forms was well and good, and sometimes to make mischeif you had to hurt a few people. But killing...killing simply sat wrong with them, maybe because past their devious minds and impish hearts, they were all good people. But one way or another, in this world, everyone has to do things they hate, now and again. And this was one of those times. Gent had hardly known the person, but at the very sight of him dead, the curdious man's legs began to shake and a tear dripped from behind his monocle. Shen walked over to him slightly.

"Are you going to be okay?" The creeper asked slowly.

"I...I believe so," Gent answered, some of the noises used for words catching a little in his throat, "we'll just have to make sure he gets a proper funeral when this is done..."

With that the monocled man shook his head and grinned a bit at the creeper.

"Now then, the loss of their leader is clearly already demoralizing them a bit," he said with a nod to the now skiddish seeming crowd of guards (the ones who didn't have their hands full with other group members), "let us get back into the fray, shall we?"

The creper nodded and was about to turn to see how he could help, when suddenly there was a flash and smoke filled the area. Shen tried to find a friend or a wall, but he bumbed into a shape he did'd recognise and suddenly everything went dark.

When he woke he foundhimself in a cage not far from a small fire in a place that looked far from familiar. There were two figures, each with a sword at their belt and a pile of the armor the bounty hunters had had. One grinned and pointed towards Shen, and the other got up and walked over to the small cage, sword in hand.

"We may not be able to take down the humans in that group," he said slowly, "but without their 'blood creeper', it won't be long before they fall apart."

He readied his sword to make a stab that would sink straight into the creeper's heart. But before he could complete the action, three arrows suddenly sunk into his back, each one smoking strangely. A tremor moved through the mans body and his eyes rolled back as he collapsed onto the ground. The other man leapt up and looked around confused, when a small storm of strange potions shot of the darkness in the woods. The second man staggered, looking sick, then fell unconcious as he face became slightly green.

Then, without warning, an enderman warped into the circle of light. He had a scar over one eye and tilted his head slightly as he looked at Shen. After a moment he rumaged a bit through the two humans' belongs and after a moment pulled out a key and unlocked the creeper's cage. Shen looked at him nervously for a moment, but then the two locked eye and the green being could tell this enderman only meant to help. Shen could tell the enderman had learned a fair amount from that second as well. After a moment, the tall being spoke in the original language of mobs.

"I think you've been out for a few weeks...your friends are very far away..." he said slowly, "but, if you come with us, we will do all we can to help you find them."

"Us?" Shen responded in the same tounge, just as a skeleton, a zombie, and a spider walked into the light.

"Yes, us," the enderman said, "we are friends. And there is nothing better for finding old friends than new ones."

"Alright, I'll come with," the creeper nodded, "my name is Shen, by the way."

"Nern," the enderman said carefully, grinning, "good to meet you."

—•—

"And that was about two years ago," Shen finished up, "we haven't always been looking, it isn't possible; sometimes we need to run or it takes a lot of time just to survive. But whenever we've had the time, Nern has always been trying to help me find those crazy griefers. He believe's their out there, and I do too."

"Wow..." Grim said quietly, "so if this Bar guy was as good as you say, and you might be better than him..."

"I've made plenty of new bombs and hollowed out quite a few caves with these guys," Shen said, "I'm our explosives expert after all. We all have something we excell at; I'm bombs, Dave's a redstone genius, Brink's the weapons guy, and Truam knows how to brew potions most folks haven't even heard of."

"What about Nern?" Grim asked, hesitantly.

"Nern is wise, it's like he has the universe itself in his mind..." The creeper trailed off for a moment, "but either way he's also an incredible builder. Now then, we should get some sleep. Nern will have us going again at sunrise."

"I thought you wanted me to tell you about my past?" The human inquired.

"I do, but not tonight," Shen said, "I'll hold you to it another day."

"Alright..." Grim answered, within seconds he could hear the creeper snoring. The human glanced at Nern, who hadn't moved in the two or so hours they had been talking. The enderman porbably hadn't even blinked. Grim wandered what he could be thinking about, sitting on that chest. He sighed, deciding to try to find out another day. And before long he too, was alseep.


	5. Nothing Left to Protect

Minecraft Story pt 5

Nern watched as the sun rose over the sea. He smiled slightly as the color of the sky grew from the dark purple of night to the bright, faded reddish color of the dawn. He inhaled slightly, the air smelt pleasant and fresh. After a moment he woke up the others and they divided up some of the food they had, which was mostly bread.

"Well then," he said calmly after they had eaten, "I suppose we'll need to be moving on soon. Dave, Shen, would you two mind doing a bit of digging? We'll need a tunnel that we can use to get out of and into this cave if we find ourselves in a pinch. And it will give an excuse to try and find a few materials we're running low on."

"We'll take care of it," Shen said, Dave nodded and gave a yup.

"Good, good," Nern smiled a little, he seemed very calm after the events that had transpired yesterday, but that was his nature and no one questioned it, "Brink, Truam, I'll need you two to keep guard, watch their backs and keep the supplies safe."

"'Sure thing," Brink answered

"Good, I'll go scout the lands around the mountain a bit," the enderman stood up, "I'll be taking Grim with me. He seems to be somewhat knowledgeable in the getting out of tricky situations, if such a thing were needed."

Grim stood up, a weary grin on his face.

"I suppose I could help out with that," the human nodded a little.

"Good, well, let's get today started," Nern said, suddenly warping behind Grim. The enderman placed a hand on the human's head and warped again, taking the latter with this time. Suddenly there were on a flattish plains area near the foot of the mountain, which stood alone as a rise of the cliffs that separate the plains and the sea. As soon as they arrived Grim collapsed to his knees, holding his stomach.

"Ah, sorry," Nern said with an apologetic air, "I Forgot that was only your second time travelling with me like that. Trust me, it gets better as you get used to it."

"Glad to know, cause right now it makes me feel like I need to vomit," the human responded, "it passes sorta fast though, at least."

"That it does," Nern responded, then suddenly looked around away from the mountain, "now then, I believe there might be a settlement near here."

"Villager or human?" Grim asked.

"Both is my guess," Nern answering the first question, "either way, I suppose we should get going."

He began to walk in one direction. Grim caught up with him after a moment.

"Why are we walking?" the human asked his companion. Nern smiled

"Sometimes it's nice to walk," he answered, "besides, there is a lot of time left in the day."

Grim nodded and kept going. They were silent as they went, both deciding for one reason or another not to ruin the morning with idle chatter. It was not long before they found the edge of the village. They were on a slight hill and could see the entirety of the collection of structures. The outer sides looked like an average villager settlement, but nearer the center, more interesting and complicated structures had been built.

"Fair sized place," Grim said, taking in the town slightly, "not too big though. The outskirts should be pretty quiet, and I think I've got a few things the villagers might trade for. Plus, I'm sure they wouldn't notice if we took some wheat and vegetables."

"Yes..." Nern agreed, though clearly distracted. He was staring intently at a place near to the edge of the village, "something seems to be happening there."

Grim noticed a strange commotion, though he couldn't quite tell what was happening.

"I realise it's probably best to stay out of trouble," the human said, "But I get the feeling we should figure out what's happening down there..."

"Same." Nern said. And without another word he began making his way down the hill in large, but safe leaps. Grim quickly followed in his path. Already, just standing at the bottom of the hill they were close enough to the ruckus to better see what it was. A small group of rough-looking humans had an Iron golem backed into a corner. Raiders, by the look of it. But the golem wasn't fiting them, instead it was standing there in the corner with it's back to them. Still, the raiders still tormented and jabbed at it. Nern narrowed his eyes and heard Grim snarl, but when he turned to make a plan with his human companion, the enderman noticed Grim was simply gone; seemingly vanished into thin air. There was not time to wonder where Grim had gone, though, and Nern turned his attention back to the raiders.

In a blink he teleported behind one of them, and with a swift motion he effortlessly through vile human into a wall, at the bottom of which they then collapsed. The others turned their attention from the golem, which glanced slightly over its shoulder for a second but did not move. Nern opened his mouth and screeched at his new opponents, but they simply laughed and grinned. A few of them pulled out strange shaped bottles, lingering potions, if Nern remembered correctly. He gulped slightly, knowing he could dodge but not for how long. But before even one bottle was thrown, Grim dropped from a rooftop, two wooden sticks in his hands, right into the middle of the group of raiders. Nern tilted his head slightly as he did his best to watch Grim's oddly fast movements: he was ducking and weaving between the group of bandits, smacking them in the back or knocking their legs out from under them almost too quick to follow.

One of the thieves was just quick enough to figure out Grim's next move and gave a heavy push with his shoulder, pushing Grim onto the ground. He moved to drive his gleaming iron into the heroic human's chest, but his sword was gone and so was Grim. The other bandits found themselves in similar positions; their weapons were all missing and not a single one of them had any clue where Grim was. Then suddenly there came a whistle from outside the group. Grim stood next to a well grinning, holding all of the raiders' weapons in his hands.

"Looking for something?" he taunted before tossing the items down the well. He smiled brightly, and gestured for them to come get him. They looked uneasily at each other for a moment, before one in the middle simply said 'nope' and rushed away, the others following his example, two slowed for only a moment to pickup the one Nern had thrown earlier.

Nern nodded impressedly as Grim came over to where Nern stood near the golem, who had turned more as he heard more noises and had watched most of the events.

"Where did you learn all that?" the enderman inquired.

"No time for that story now," Grim said, somewhat curtly, "can you check if anybody in town was hurt?"

"...yes, I suppose I would be quickest at that," Nern said and warped away.

Grim moved towards the golem, hands empty. The large entitiy did not react much, and kept itself mostly turned away from the human. Nern suddenly warped back, a dark look on his face. Grim moved away from the golem and faced the enderman.

"That was fast..." he said, warily, "that's not a good sign."

"No." Nern answered quietly, "everyone that was here..."

Grim gasped quietly and looked down slightly. Then Nern gently tapped the golem on the shoulder. The hulking creature turned just enough to look into the thin being's eyes. The golem's eyes widened and after a moment, it turned all the way around, revealing it had been cradling two small figures in its arms: one a villager, one a human. Both children, and both dead. Nern gently reached up and placed a hand on the golem's shoulder and thought it seemed impossible, tears welled up in the iron creature's eyes. Nern continued to look into the golem's eyes until he said five quiet words to it.

"It is not your fault." something in the way the enderman said those words resonated strangely with the golem. It used one arm to dry its eyes slightly and stood a little straighter. Then it gently placed down the two small bodies, displaced the dirt into two somewhat deep holes and carefully set one of the children in each before filling them back in. Nern turned towards Grim.

"He is going to come with us," the enderman said calmly, "all he knows is to protect, and there is nothing left to protect here."

"Alright," Grim said with a nod, "now then...what should we do about our needing supplies?"

"I'm certain our new friend will not mind if we take from the feilds in the village," Nern said gently, "come on, now. The day is wearing on."

It wasn't long before they had gathered up a more than survival amount of crops and began to head back towards the mountain, the golem in tow. The sun had just began to move past its peak when Grim spoke up.

"We should name him," the human said, "it would be better than just calling him golem."

"Quite the bright idea," Nern said, "but I do not think he would enjoy it."

"Why's that?" Grim asked, confused

"He already has a name," the enderman responded, "the people of that village gave it to him, probably some years ago. It was a bit childish, but he seemed adamant to keep it, if you ask me."

"Ah..." Grim said, "well what is this name then?"

"He was called Timtim," Nern answered with a nod, "it is not a bad name, though I believe it is far from anything we would have chosen."

"Timtim, huh?" Grim said, then he shrugged, "well, so long as he's happy with it."

"Indeed," Nern said, and they were all silent for a while. The day waned on slightly, but before long they found their way back to the mountain, in which was a new tunnel leading upwards.

"Looks like the others finished their jobs already," Nern said quietly as the three made their way inside.

"You made it back," Brink said when he met them midway up the tunnel, "though I think you picked up a new friend."

"Brink, this is Timtim," Nern said, indicating the golem. He recounted the days events to the skeleton.

"Well, golems are always good to have around," Brink nodded approvingly, "and it seems there's far more to you than you let on, Grim. Honestly reminds me a little of somebody I used to know..."

As he said the last part, Brink seemed to sort of space out slightly. After a moment, he shook his head and pulled his hood up. He made eye contact with Nern and the enderman nodded, gently placing a hand on the skeleton's shoulder.

"Be back before the moon reaches its peak," Nern said, "that's when we'll be heading out."

Brink nodded and went back the way the small group had come. Grim moved to go after him, but the stoic being stopped him.

"He goes on walks when his past starts to come back to him" Nern said, "it is a tragic story. Possibly the worst out of each of ours...but he would not enjoy me telling it to you. Wait for him at the tunnel entrance, though, and he might just tell you himself when he gets back...maybe."

With that he took Timtim up to go meet the others. Grim took his advice and sat down at the tunnel's entrance. He closed his eyes and leaned back against a wall, alseep upon any inspection. But he was very much awake, simply waiting. Somewhere between sunset and midnight, he heard the sounds of Brink slowly coming back. The human opened his eyes but Brink held up his hand.

"Nern told you to do this, huh?" the skeleton asked, but already knew the answer, "suppose he didn't want my story told without my permission..."

Grim nodded, about to speak but the other being stopped him again.

"He's the only one besides me that knows my story; he knows all of our stories, even if we donn't tell him" he continued from a moment ago, "And I can assure you that for true, because I have never told anyone...suppose it's time I did...Always heard that telling somebody about a problem makes it easier to deal with."

"It might," Grim said, "I simply want to know more about each of you guys."

"Well, then might as well kill two birds with one stone," Brink said, sitting down next to the human, "make yourself comfy: this'll take a while..."


End file.
